Electronic books & the future.

[Mantaspook 14]

I was in the pub the other night when the conversation turned to the old favourite "What's going to be the next big jump in technology?" (Don't we have some exciting conversations?)

 

On previous occasions that his subject has occurred I've got a few things right like microwave ovens, GPS units and mobile phones, although one of my buddies still insists I nicked that idea from star trek, the usual way to shut him up is to tell him us Trekkies invented the internet so we could talk to each other, and he should (deleted) back to Babylon-5.

 

Anyway, Mantaspook's great prediction this year is the arrival of THE ELECTRONIC BOOK, which is set to revolutionise the publishing industry and which I confidently predict will eventually lead to the demise of the paper book.

 

Some of my buddies disagreed and they pointed out the aesthetic appeal of paper, the prohibitive (£200+) cost of the device vs a few quid for a book and the fact that books don't need a battery.

 

I countered with the extraordinary high quality of the Kindle's screen, the fact that prices will almost certainly fall as mass production will enhance the economies of scale and that battery technology is getting better all the time, we'll be approaching weeks of use for these low power designs in the near future.

 

Downsides that were envisaged were that Sony / Amazon or whoever invented the device became the gatekeepers to the books and they could theoretically impose charges or even deny users access to certain books, under threat of their 'operating license' being withdrawn by the government. (Far fetched? Anyone remember the Spycatcher affair?

 

The advantages are going to be fantastic though.

 

1. Less trees chopped down. Good for the environment.

2. No smoky lorries delivering crates of books all over the place. Ditto.

3. Distribution instead by electronic means, for instance, over the internet or through a wireless 3G network.

4. A vast collection of books such as novels, text books, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, volumes of technical manuals etc. can all be carried on one handy tablet.

5. The distribution system has the potential to be the ultimate 'Publish on Demand' system, leading to a wider range of books being "published"

 

On this last point I still think the established publishers will still dominate their market segment, they know what the market wants etc and they've proven that with very little (celebrity) material with the right publicity/ editors / illustrators / photographers etc that a commercially viable "book" can be created - I'm sure that trend will continue.

 

But it may also lead to them taking more risks with a 'breakthrough' author; potentially an electronic manuscript submitted by them could be formatted for a very small cost and stored into an electronic archive for downloading by the general public, probably most of the cost would be advertising / publicity to encourage sales.

 

The risk of a large production run on a novel that fails to sell and thus bankrupting the company would be reduced to a minimum and perhaps this would lead to a more adventurous attitude when they decide what to publish from the slush pile, alternatively it may lead to a revolution and sites like LULU.Com enable authors to go direct to the public, of course, how they attract their attention through the electronic jamming could be interesting…

 

Your thoughts and ideas on what you would like to see in an electronic book are eagerly awaited, in the meantime here are a few links to the products that are already out there and BTW, if Apple ever launch their version the whole lot could be blown out of the water…

 

Kindle Demo

 

The New Kindle DX Demo - I like this one.

 

- your flexible friend.

 

 

Sony PRS-505 review

Edited January 7, 2010 by Mantaspook

[coyleys 10]

This gives one an idea on the price...

 

I will probably get told off for this...

 

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1311&_nkw=e+books&_sacat=See-All-Categories

 

You will probably have to scroll down.

Edited January 13, 2010 by coyleys
wrong link

[Ron Blanco 10]

Hi Mantaspook,

 

I hope you're right about eBooks. Clearly mainstream publishing has become greedy and shallow and taken power away from the author. This might help redress the balance.

 

I suppose I would like a thin, lightweight, A5 size pad with eye-tracker so that it scrolls down automatically.

 

Hopefully, these books would be priced at £2-£4 for traditional length stuff and authors would get 75-90% of that. But of course there would be no requirement to simply sell novel-length stuff. Writers could submit monthly short stories on a variety of themes from Red Herrings to Christmas Switchovers and charge about a quid a go. I would happily pay a pound a month for Coyley's gems!

 

I suppose it needs sites that will offer reviews of ebooks and a sample of the writing - perhaps an opening page.

 

I love the idea.

[coyleys 10]

I would happily pay a pound a month for Coyley's gems!

 

Thanks Ron, but I can’t believe there is someone out there that would actually pay money for Coyleys scribbles, but just for that I promise to knock together a Christmas one in the next couple of days.

[Ron Blanco 10]

I can’t believe there is someone out there that would actually pay money for Coyleys scribbles

 

Yes of course Mr C. Why not publish your next story on Keith Rich's site? Maybe a pound is a bit steep though.

[Falls 10]

Hi,

 

Based on observations on this side of the pond, I have sadly concluded that people here will only buy an electronic book as a status symbol. Very few are going to buy one to actually read because a great swath of the population cannot read with any degree of proficiency.

 

Now if someone comes out with an electronic colouring book, that's a different matter.

 

Regards

[coyleys 10]

Very few are going to buy one to actually read because a great swath of the population cannot read with any degree of proficiency.

 

Now if someone comes out with an electronic colouring book, that's a different matter.

 

Regards

 

:hihi:

Now if that doesn’t call for a brick through the window, I don’t know what does.

[coyleys 10]

Why not publish your next story on Keith Rich's site?

 

 

This may be a good idea for Falls, a collection of ‘Memories of Sheffield’.

[Dozy 11]

I've had a Sony PRS-505 for over a year and it's bloody brilliant!

 

My house is awash with books - bookshelves in the living room, bookshelves along the landing, bookshelves in other rooms and piles of books on floors, because I've run out of shelf space. I re-read lots of books, so it's a constantly growing problem.

 

I'd wanted an e-book reader since they first appeared in the US a few years ago, but they were too expensive for me to justify buying one. But I was going to the Philippines for 4 weeks last year, for a family re-union, and realised that I needed one, otherwise I'd end up with my suitcase so rammed with books, I'd not have any space for clothes!

 

With the memory card I bought for it, I can get literally thousands of books on it, so I'm in the process of buying e-books (mainly from E-bay, the prices to buy them from bookshops at the moment are ridiculous). The idea is that I can then get rid of all the "real" books and have some space for the ones which aren't yet available as an e-book. Unfortunately, I haven't quite got round to disposing of the "real" books yet.

 

I wouldn't touch a Kindle with a bargepole because they don't sell you the book at all - and they can retrieve from your reader any time they want! Which I think is a total con. With the Sony, you don't connect to t'interweb with your reader to download, you do it via your PC/laptop, so nobody can get their mitts on my books.

 

Also, I'm not sure whether you could use a Kindle to download from Project Gutenberg, which is one of my main sources of books. They're all books that are out of copyright now and I've managed to find some that I couldn't find as "real" books.

 

I was half-watching the BBC programme which featured the LA electronics show (or whatever it's called) and that showed some advances in e-book readers, so I think they're probably here to stay. I just hope that as they become more popular, the publishers start competing a bit so the prices of new e-books become more reasonable.

[Falls 10]

:hihi:

Now if that doesn’t call for a brick through the window, I don’t know what does.

 

Hi,

 

I forgot to tell you. They are useless at throwing bricks as well. Like most childhood pastimes here, its a dying art I'm afraid.

 

You rarely see kids playing-out after school here. You may find a few playing street hockey but most are up in their rooms playing computer games. If they play ice hockey at all, its seldom on outdoor rinks in the cold, as kids used play, but on indoor ice surfaces. The price for a girl or boy to play organized hockey here is absolutely staggering.

 

 

Regards

Edited January 18, 2010 by Falls
Text added

[Keith Rich 10]

Yes, ebooks are the future.

 

At the moment the biggest market for ebooks is the USA and this is the market we are now targetting. 70% of all ebooks sold are sold in the US. I believe the UK only sells 5 %.

Keith.

http://www.epublishingonline.co.uk

[coyleys 10]

Just a thought, but would Keith consider a collection of short stories, written by the SFWG?